New tomato problem....

[aclum]

Hi again and thanks, again, for all the responses.

I hope to get some Take Down and/or what Bill recommended tomorrow or Monday.

Kurt's ideas were a bit different and interesting. Something that hadn't occurred to me. I'm done in the garden for the day, but tomorrow I'll go out and check under the plastic mulch to assess things. Also, I don't recall precisely (will have to backtrack and try to figure things out), but I think my grafted and ungrafted plants were equally affected by the leaf problems. The grafted plants are resistant or tolerant to fusarium crown and root rot (J3). I think the one I just had photos of was ungrafted.

I was reading a bit today on spider mites and russet mites and saw mention of how they thrive in hot, dry weather and dislike humidity. One guy had mentioned getting rid of all his mites by misting. So.... just for the heck of it, I brought my little cool mist humidifier out to the garden and misted a few of the plants. I don't think it can hurt (unless I get a fungal disease now ).

To keep things interesting, I came across another problem with the tomatoes today. I have a Zachary that, so far, has been looking pretty good. Today I noticed a few darkening leaves becoming a dark muddy green (directly from normal green - no orange or rust phase). When I went to remove the leaves, I found that the leaflet cleanly snapped off right at the stem with just the slightest bit of pressure. It about dropped off. There was no discoloration of anything but the normally green leafy portion - the stem portion of the leaflet or petiole - looked totally normal. But looking at the end of the leaflet or petiole where it broke off of the plant stem, the outer green layer of material did not entirely encircle the lighter green "pithy" center portion, but rather looked more like the cross section of a gutter with just the smallest bit of darker outside material running across the top section of the "gutter view." Hope that makes sense!!

Well, we'll see what surprises tomorrow holds for the garden . I feel like I should write a country western song ..... My Green Thumb Turned Brown and Now I'm Feeling Blue (tossing in a few references to Red Solo Cups - although I've never heard that infamous song - and "oh Lordies)."

Anne